Frederick County

‘Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag,' she said. — "The Ballad of Barbara Fritchie," by John Greenleaf Whittier Alas, one of my childhood heroines turns out to be a sham. Although gray-headed Barbara Fritchie did in fact live in Frederick when Confederate troops marched through town en route to their historic defeat at Antietam 150 years ago, she was not the one who defiantly displayed the Union flag as legend recalls.

$475,000 Frederick County home can be yours for a Benjamin Here's your chance to snag a four-bedroom, 3 1 / 2 bathroom house valued at $475,000 for $100. Mark Gaver , owner of GTI Federal , an IT contractor for the U.S. government, and his wife, Donna , are using their 3,224-square-foot house in Middletown as a fundraiser for their alma mater, Middletown High School in Frederick County. The couple credit their experiences at the school for their personal and financial achievements.

First, for context, go back to Dec. 4, 2003. Eric Yeroshefsky and Matt Castor have just rushed for more than 100 yards apiece, leading Linganore to a 28-0 win over Lackey in the Maryland 3A championship game. It is a good day to be a Lancer, having just captured the school's fourth state football title, and it also is a good time to be a fan of Frederick County football. With the victory, county teams have won 10 state championships, including five in the previous six seasons.

FREDERICK, Md. — Maryland State Police are asking Frederick County deputies to patrol parts of state routes 85 and 355 due to a trooper shortage there and a reorganization of the state agency. Spokesman Greg Shipley said Wednesday the changes don't reflect a statewide trend. He says Baltimore County police already patrol some state highways. Shipley says road patrol responsibilities differ from county to county under agreements that are routinely reviewed. He says Carroll...

The Washington Post regularly tracks housing sales and prices throughout the Washington area each Saturday in the Real Estate section, comparing information collected for each residential Zip code from each time period in 2006 with that for the corresponding time period in 2007. The chart and map this week compare single-family house and townhouse sales figures in Frederick County for all of 2006 with those for all of 2007, showing the total number of sales, the median prices and the changes in the medians.

These sales data recorded by the Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation were provided by Lender Processing Services. For information about other home-sales transactions, visit www. washingtonpost.com/homesales . Montgomery County ASHTON AREA Ashcroft Ct., 213-Martha A. Wharton to Jennifer Benson and Joseph J. Kozma, $585,000. ASPEN HILL AREA Crispin Way, 13604-John Stracke to Libra Investments Corp., $300,000. Haverford Dr., 4417-Dorothy B. and Donald G. Simons to Harold...

A man looking for wild mushrooms in a wooded area of Frederick County this week found the carcasses of more than 70 dogs and two cats in a pile on private property near the Potomac River, authorities said today. The carcasses appeared to have been piled there at least a month ago and perhaps as long as two months ago, said Harold Domer, director of the Frederick County Animal Control Division. The animals "were fairly well decomposed," he said. Domer said his office is attempting to learn if the animals were killed at the scene...

Two tornadoes tore across part of southeastern Frederick County on Friday, taking down hundreds of trees, lifting roofs and shingles, tossing around lawn and patio furniture and leaving residents with debris-filled yards and fields. "We were right in the middle of it," said Barbara Fouche of the Ijamsville area, who said the storm "wreaked total havoc. " She said the tornado that ripped across her neighborhood on Mussetter Road damaged her roof, broke windows and threw one of four columns from the front of her house...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Officials at Shenandoah National Park are working on a plan to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease. The Daily Progress (http://bit.ly/142odac ) reports that the plan could include thinning the park's heaviest populations of whitetail deer. Park officials also plan to increase surveillance and detection of the disease, which affects the brains and nervous systems of deer, elk and moose. Park biologist Rolf Gubler says the disease has been detected in...

THE DISTRICT D.C. schools extend academic year by a day The District's school system has extended the academic year by one day to make up for classes missed because of inclement weather, officials said Tuesday. The school year had been scheduled to end with a half-day of instruction on June 20. That will now be a full day of instruction, and classes will continue for a half-day on June 21. In addition, June 3 — previously scheduled as a parent-teacher conference day — will be a regular school day. Schools will make...

Frederick County sheriff's deputies, meet Louisa Harris. Harris is a rent-a-cop at a CVS in Northeast Washington. And she could teach you how to do your job right. If only Harris had been working the mall cop detail at Westview Regal Cinemas in Frederick on Jan. 12 instead of three off-duty Frederick sheriff's deputies, Robert Ethan Saylor would still be alive. Saylor died after a confrontation at the movie theater over paying for a ticket for "Zero Dark Thirty. " He wanted to stay and watch the...

Robert Ethan Saylor didn't like to be touched, and suddenly an off-duty deputy had his hands on him. Within moments, two more deputies would grab him, the four men would fall in a heap on the floor, and Saylor, who had been shouting and resisting their attempts to restrain him, would grow quiet and still. More than two months after a man with Down syndrome died at the hands of three off-duty Frederick County sheriff's deputies, these details about his death emerged in an autopsy...

Fascinated with law enforcement, Robert Ethan Saylor would sometimes call 911 just to ask the dispatchers a question. He loved talking to police officers and was a loyal follower of the TV show "NCIS. " Now, his death at age 26 is the subject of a criminal investigation that has left those who knew him in his Frederick County community and those who didn't around the country wondering: How did a young man with Down syndrome die in an encounter with the very people he idolized?

Two young girls died and four of their family members, including an infant sister, were injured in a fast-moving fire that destroyed a Myersville, Md., home late Thursday, according to authorities. Sophie P. Lillard, 6, and Madigan G. Lillard, 3, died of smoke inhalation, according to the Frederick County sheriff's office. Autopsies performed Friday at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore determined that their deaths were accidental, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

Libertytown — On a steep hillside up the street from an auto repair shop, a group of McDaniel College students are piecing together long-forgotten lives. The students pull back brambles, trim branches and press flour into tombstones carved a century or more ago. They are trying to uncover the details of the lives of some of the early African American residents of this small Frederick County town. "They were forgotten, but we're bringing their names back," said junior Emoff Amofa, 21, who is taking...

Montgomery County These sales data recorded by the Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation were provided by Lender Processing Services. For information about other residential real estate transactions, visit www.washingtonpost.com/homesales . ASPEN HILL AREA Adrian St., 5014-William Youngson and Linda Y. Chen to Andrew and Gina Shin, $275,000. Castaway Dr., 14009-John L. and Eithne L. Nevin to David J. and Carol A. Crane, $455,000. Frankfort Dr., ...